12 Days of Christmas

Grandma and Grandpa sent the 12 days of

Christmas. They gave us a journal and asked us to record our thoughts each night.

Each year Grandma and Grandpa pick a theme that our 12 Days of Christmas Gifts revolve around. This year the theme is "Gifts and the Blessings we receive in our lives because of gifts that are given to us".

#1. The First Gift of Christmas was Jesus Christ.

On the first day of Christmas Grandma and Grandpa gave to us... A glowing tile with a scene of the nativity.

#2. The Gift and Blessing of Tradition

On the second day of Christmas Grandma and Grandpa gave to us... Pillowcases!! A yearly tradition from Grandma that we LOVE!! They are so cute and comfy.

#3. The Gift and Blessing of Grandparents

On the third day of Christmas Great Grandma Browning gave to us... a cozy bear (made by her) that can be warmed in the microwave each night to warm us in our beds!

#4. The Gift of Friendship

On the fourth day of Christmas Grandma and Grandpa gave to us... Yummy treats to give to our friends.

#5. The Gift of Service

On the fifth day of Christmas Grandma and Grandpa gave to us... Service Mice!! 2 cute stuffed mice to place secretly on the pillows of those that you do a secret service for.

#6. The Gift and Blessing of the Holy Ghost

On the sixth day of Christmas Grandma and Grandpa gave to us... warm and comfy blankets that Grandma made and a book about Jesus.

#7. The gift of Family History

On the seventh day of Christmas Grandma and Grandpa gave to us... a written history of my Great Grandpa and a cool story of how he was hit by a train- and survived!!!

#8. The Gift of a living prophet on the earth

The prophet has counseled us to have food storage, and on the eighth day of Christmas Grandma and Grandmpa gave us food storage!!

#9. The Gift of Time

On the ninth day of Christmas Grandma and Grandpa gave us a clock that was SEWN with love! Every family members name was sewn on with the words "Time to Say I Love You".

"God's gift to us is time, what we do with that time is our gift to God." Everyone has the same amount of time in a day... 24 hours. What we do with that time is up to each of us.

#10. The Gift of Prayer

On the 10th day of Christmas Grandma and Grandpa gave to us... a camel ornament. - let us be like the camel who "at the end of each long day, the camel kneels at the feet of his master. His master carefully lifts the burden from the camels back so it can rest comfortably through the night. The next morning, the camel kneels again before the master, and the master gently places the burden on the camel's back for another day. He is careful to rearrange things here or there if he sees the pack is wearing a sore spot... As we kneel each night at the feet of our master, may he lift our burdens that we may sleep well and comfortably. As we kneel each morning, May we realize that he knows our pain, our suffering and our sorows for He has felt them all."

#11. The gift of the atonement.

On the 11th day of Christmas Grandma and Grandpa gave us a statue of Christ.

#12. The gift of Inspiration.

On the 12th day of Christmas Grandma and Grandpa gave us some money- they asked us to pray about a family or a need in our area for the money so we can be inspired.

That is where we are on our 12 days!! Thanks mom.

Talent Show

Gloria auditioned for and made the talent show at her school. She sang a song by Taylor Swift, "Our Song" and she played the guitar while she sang. I recorded it, but don't know how to download the video to my blog. She did an AMAZING job. She has a beautiful voice and she plays the guitar so well. There were 2 performances and she rocked them both. I am so proud of her. She was really nervous to sing a solo in front of so many people, but you couldn't tell that she was nervous. She performed like a pro! Great job, Gloria!

Santa

This past weekend we went to have breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Clause. The kids had a great time! Unfortunately Travis was out of town and missed all of the excitement, but our friends, the Geyer's were there. Yay!

Olivia was so excited to see Santa. She could hardly sleep the night before visiting him. In the morning, while waiting to go to breakfast, she kept asking questions about Santa.. "does he like pancakes? Will he bring his reindeer? Is he making my toys?" She was so excited when Santa walked into the restaurant and

was cheering so loud. Then when she went to sit on his lap, she looked him square in the eyes and said "Santa, will you bring me a PINK HORSE please?"! To which Santa replied "I will try my best"!!! What?! Pink horse? I'm done with my Christmas shopping, I hope Santa has access to a PINK HORSE cuz I sure as heck DONT!! Yikes. Why is this the first time that I have heard about this? I don't know.... but I hope Santa has the elves working overtime because she is going to be mighty disappointed if she doesn't get a pink horse!

Love these kids

These kids are amazing. Fantastic. Kind. Loving. Honest. Smart. Wonderful. I am so blessed to have these kids in my life.

There is a quote in last months Ensign by Elder Neil L. Andersen from his talk in Octobers General Conference. I girl I Visit Teach pointed this out to me and I have been thinking about it ever since.

He said (and he is quoting) "Growing up in this culture, it is very hard to get a biblical perspective on motherhood.... children rank way below college. Below world travel for sure. Below the ability to go out at night at your leisure. Below toning your body at the gym. Below any job you may have or hope to get." She then adds: "Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because they are cuter than stamps. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for."

It is what God gave you the time for! I love it. Soon I will have this quote framed and hanging on my wall. I hope it will always remind me that my kids are more important than my girl's night out. My next craft project, and more important than a clean house (YIKES, easier to say than do sometimes) and above my desires. These kids are what God gave me time for!

Max

This is Max. The newest member of our family. He is so sweet. He is 4 months old. He is a Labradoodle. We are in love with him.

Max was auctioned off at my husband's family Thanksgiving party. We all fell in love with him at first sight. When we showed up for the event, one of Travis's Uncles (who breeds labradoodles) showed up with Max to donate the auction (a fund raiser they do every year to benefit their family genealogy). When we saw Max on the auction list we took the kids outside to meet him. We all knew that he was a great dog. Travis and I have been thinking about getting another dog at some point. Lucy wants a friend to play with and we found the perfect one. Lucy is a Goldendoodle and is such a wonderful dog, we were worried that we would never find another dog as good as her, but I think that fortune has smiled on us once again as Max is a really good natured dog.

Both Max and Lucy are hypo-allergenic. They don't shed (thank goodness!) and have GREAT temperments. They are wonderful with kids and very loving. I think that Max will definitely grow bigger than Lucy (she is already almost as tall as Lucy). We are still potty training, but he is doing so well.

So, meet Max. Fall in love with his sweet soft cuteness. We did!

Thanksgiving!

This year we made an impromptu trip to Utah for Thanksgiving. It was our first time home for Thanksgiving in eight years. It was so much fun. We had a blast. Probably our favorite trip to Utah we have ever had (and that is saying something, because we always have a fabulous time visiting family)! We drove in a leisurely fashion, which was really nice, for a change. We didn't drive through the night, and we made plenty of stops, including a stop for two days in St. George. During our stay in St. George we stayed at a really fun hotel that had indoor and outdoor pools and hot tubs and indoor and outdoor play grounds. The kids had a blast! The staff was so friendly and the continental breakfast was a favorite of our kids.

We visited the Johnson Dinosaur Museum and a fun bounce house called "Jumping Jacks". We went out for ice cream and did some shopping, but mostly we just played at the hotel. The kids were having such a fun time in St. George, but when we woke up after our second day there and asked the kids if they wanted to stay another day in St. George or get in the car and drive 5 hours to go visit family, they all yelled excitedly "Go visit our cousins!!!". So we went. It was a surprise to our cousins and to our kids and it was fun to surprise everyone.

Our first night we spent at our cabin and played in the snow. It was nice and COLD.

The night before thanksgiving my family always does a HUGE family dinner, with my moms side of the family and my dad's side of the family. My little brother Ned was there (he lives in Las Vegas now). Aunt Aleta brought a pinata for all the little kids and they had a tough time trying to break it. We have a long running tradition of playing musical chairs with the adults. It can get pretty rough, but the glory of winning is worth the broken bones, bloody noses and black eyes (it's not really THAT rough, but pretty close)! There is even a trophy handed from winner to winner each year. Unfortunately I did NOT win (due to some sketchy circumstances) and I merely came in 4th place... I was not a happy loser- I planned to make my come back by winning first place! It was not to be. I was distracted by a CHILD (not mine) sent to engage me in conversation while the music was being stopped... it was a sneaky and underhanded thing to do!

On thanksgiving day we did a nice sit down family dinner with my brothers and sisters. It took some extra effort for all my siblings that came to make it there. I love spending time with my siblings and their kids. We do have a lot of fun together and I hope that someday they will all go to college together and get married at the same time... ! I also got to go see Curtis and Heathers new home that they are in the process of renovating. It is so cute! It is in West bountiful and I am so excited to have them close to my mom so we can spend more time visiting them when we travel to Utah.

Olivia had a great time with Zahara (we call her little "Z"). "Z" is about 7 months younger than Olivia and they get along fabulously. They are going to be great friends as they get older (they already love each other so much).

Friday we went to the cabin with Heather and Ilesha's families. We played in the snow and rode snowmobiles. Saturday we went to a Thanksgiving feast with Travis's family. It was a fun event and we walked away with a new member of our family (more on this in our next post). We drove home through the night and got home Sunday. It was such an exciting trip and we mad a lot of memories that we will carry with us for years to come.